Experience + Adoption | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/experience+society/adoption
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Experience: I found my identical twin on YouTubehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/10/experience-found-identical-twin-youtube
<p>‘She sent me a picture of her adoption records. We had been born in the same clinic. She wrote, “Dude, we’re totally twins!”’</p><p>I’ve always known I was adopted. I was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in France by parents who look nothing like me, with blond hair and blue eyes. My adoption records say I was born an only child to a very young, unmarried woman.</p><p>In December 2012 I was in London, studying fashion, when another student posted a YouTube video of me on my Facebook page. But I’ve never made a YouTube video in my life. When I watched it, I realised it wasn’t me at all, it was an American girl who looked exactly like me.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/03/experience-i-am-dancing-man">Experience: I am Dancing Man</a> </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/19/experience-blindness-no-sense-of-time">Experience: I was blinded by a school science experiment</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/10/experience-found-identical-twin-youtube">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleFamilyAdoptionChildrenSocietyFri, 10 Jul 2015 12:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/10/experience-found-identical-twin-youtubePhotograph: John Francis Peters for the Guardian'We're both awkward and have the exact same strange sense of humour.' Photograph: John Francis Peters for the GuardianPhotograph: John Francis Peters for the Guardian'We're both awkward and have the exact same strange sense of humour.' Photograph: John Francis Peters for the GuardianAnaïs Bordier2015-07-10T12:59:00ZExperience: I found my birth mother five minutes from homehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/18/experience-found-birth-mother-close-to-home
'We had gone to exactly the same shops and the same pub. We had even watched the same football games there'<p>Growing up, in Ireland, I always knew I was adopted and for the first 10 years of my life it made me feel special. But as an adolescent, I began to really hurt. I&nbsp;was never resentful, but I longed to know that my birth mother cared.</p><p>Birthdays were particularly hard, and my parents came to expect me to cry every year. Why would I want to celebrate a day when I was given away? I adored my mum and dad, but I needed to know the reasons I&nbsp;wound up with them. On my 13th birthday, they told me everything they knew – that my birth mother was 24 when she had me, that she was a twin and that her hobbies included music.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/18/experience-found-birth-mother-close-to-home">Continue reading...</a>AdoptionChildrenSocietyParents and parentingFamilyLife and styleIrelandEuropeWorld newsFri, 18 Apr 2014 12:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/18/experience-found-birth-mother-close-to-homePhotograph: Patrick Bolger/GuardianAoife Curran. Photograph: Patrick Bolger for the Guardian. Click for full portraitPhotograph: Patrick Bolger/GuardianAoife Curran. Photograph: Patrick Bolger for the Guardian. Click for full portraitAoife Curran2014-04-18T12:00:00ZExperience: I was a foundlinghttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/08/i-was-a-foundling-experience
'I had been discovered on a doorstep by a paperboy'<p>The day after my mother's death, I went up to her bedroom and found a box full of papers. Inside was a&nbsp;letter. "Dearest Andrew," it began, "this&nbsp;was not the way it was meant to be… There was never a right time to tell you."</p><p>I was brought up in the 1960s, when telling a child they were adopted wasn't common practice. As I read on, I discovered, at the age of 32, not only that I was adopted but that, as a newborn baby, I&nbsp;had been abandoned on a&nbsp;doorstep. Along with the letter, which had been written some time before, was my adoption paperwork – "Mother: unknown. Father: unknown" – and two newspaper clippings. The first described a&nbsp;newborn baby in a grey and pink knitted vest, wrapped in a pink blanket, discovered on a doorstep in Falkirk by a paperboy. The second was from a year later, reporting that the baby was still in a&nbsp;children's home, yet to be adopted. There was also a&nbsp;photograph of a toddler with a&nbsp;wistful expression. I realised with a&nbsp;start that it was me.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/08/i-was-a-foundling-experience">Continue reading...</a>AdoptionChildrenFamilySocietyLife and styleFri, 08 Jun 2012 21:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/08/i-was-a-foundling-experiencePhotograph: Mark Chilvers for the Guardian'When I had my own children, I couldn't imagine abandoning them when they were tiny.' Photograph: Mark Chilvers for the GuardianPhotograph: Mark Chilvers for the Guardian'When I had my own children, I couldn't imagine abandoning them when they were tiny.' Photograph: Mark Chilvers for the GuardianAndrew Rowan2012-06-08T21:59:00ZExperience: I was conceived by rapehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/02/i-was-conceived-by-rape
'No wonder my mother had given me up for adoption; I was an unbearable reminder of a violent attack'<p>I always knew I was adopted. My mother told me I'd been chosen and I should feel extra special. A tall blonde growing up with short, brunette Jewish parents, all&nbsp;I ever felt was awkward and out&nbsp;of place.&nbsp;</p><p>When I was about nine, I began to think endlessly about my biological parents. Was my father athletic, like me? Did I have my mother's blue eyes? I stared at people on the street, fantasising that they were my&nbsp;birth parents. &nbsp;</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/02/i-was-conceived-by-rape">Continue reading...</a>Rape and sexual assaultLawAdoptionChildrenSocietyLife and styleFri, 02 Mar 2012 22:59:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/02/i-was-conceived-by-rapePhotograph: Roy Ritchie for the Guardian'If I went on to have a son, would he be a rapist, too?' Photograph: Roy Ritchie for the GuardianPhotograph: Roy Ritchie for the Guardian'If I went on to have a son, would he be a rapist, too?' Photograph: Roy Ritchie for the GuardianRebecca Kiessling2012-03-02T22:59:10ZExperience: I was adopted, then gave up my own childhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/05/adoption-gave-up-child
'I was bereft. I had no idea where Jonathan was – I'd peer into prams when I was out, wondering if the babies inside were him'<p>I was three when I learned I&nbsp;was adopted. At that age, of course, it was a concept I&nbsp;couldn't really understand, but I remember feeling slightly overwhelmed and lost. My adoptive parents decided to take on another child, and my father explained that my new baby brother had been "chosen", just as I was chosen: because I was "special".</p><p>By the time I was in secondary school, I'd started asking questions. My parents had no paperwork or photographs they could show me, so I filled in the gaps myself, wondering if the colour of my eyes or the way I&nbsp;smiled came from my mother.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/05/adoption-gave-up-child">Continue reading...</a>AdoptionChildrenSocietyLife and styleSat, 05 Feb 2011 00:02:56 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/05/adoption-gave-up-childPhotograph: Julian benjamin for the Guardian'I fed and bathed him for 10 days, talked to him, told him I loved him.' Photograph: Julian benjamin for the GuardianPhotograph: Julian benjamin for the Guardian'I fed and bathed him for 10 days, talked to him, told him I loved him.' Photograph: Julian benjamin for the GuardianJo Galloway2011-02-05T00:02:56ZExperience: I chanced upon the daughter I gave up for adoptionhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/30/met-adopted-daughter-by-chance
'The last time I'd held her had been as a baby in a hospital ward; now she was 20'<p>It was 1989, and I was meeting up with a literary agent for the first time, hoping to make a good impression and talk about some script ideas. I walked into her plush London offices in Piccadilly, barely registering the polite young secretary who handed me a coffee.</p><p>I was 36 and desperate to meet the&nbsp;daughter I had reluctantly handed over for adoption 20 years earlier. Having a baby out of wedlock as a teenager was not unusual in the late&nbsp;1960s; nor was giving it up for adoption, particularly not in the impoverished East End of London, where I grew up in a tiny, two-roomed flat.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/30/met-adopted-daughter-by-chance">Continue reading...</a>AdoptionChildrenSocietyRelationshipsParents and parentingFamilyLife and styleFri, 29 Oct 2010 23:03:35 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/30/met-adopted-daughter-by-chancePhotograph: David Yeo for the Guardian'There is no ground map that ­exists for such situations: we have had to feel our way towards a relationship.' Photograph: David Yeo for the GuardianPhotograph: David Yeo for the Guardian'There is no ground map that ­exists for such situations: we have had to feel our way towards a relationship.' Photograph: David Yeo for the GuardianJulie Wassmer2010-10-29T23:03:35ZExperience: I'm glad I gave my baby for adoptionhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/08/baby-adoption-experience
<p>I was 17 when I found out I was pregnant. I'd known the father for years; as kids we'd sat next to each other in primary school, as teenagers we hung around in the same group. It wasn't a serious relationship; he'd made it clear that's not what he wanted and neither did I. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/08/baby-adoption-experience">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleChildrenSocietyAdoptionSat, 08 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/08/baby-adoption-experiencePhotograph: Fabio De Paola'This child deserved a better life, a life I couldn't offer.' Photograph: Fabio De PaolaPhotograph: Fabio De Paola'This child deserved a better life, a life I couldn't offer.' Photograph: Fabio De PaolaAnonymous2008-11-08T00:01:00Z